Celeste Legaspi loves stretching her artistic limits

Celeste Legaspi

Celeste Legaspi’s “diehard” fans agree with us that “the original diva’s” Aug. 5 concert at The Theatre at Solaire is a “can’t-miss, must-see” musical trip and treat.

They cite her unique combination of beauty, husky singing voice, interpretative gift, versatility, maturity and “class” as major come-ons.

“And temperament, don’t forget temperament!” adds an addled fan. Yes, she does have that, in feisty spades.

We first worked with Celeste way back in the ’70s, when we directed “Jesus Christ Superstar in Filipino” for Chito and Au Cobarrubias at Hotel Mirador, which popularized dinner-theater productions in Manila.

Celeste movingly played Mary Magdalene to Rico J. Puno’s seething Judas in the star-studded show.

The plum role of Jesus, we entrusted to two gifted newcomers, Robert Encila and Robert Armonio, who performed in alternation—to great audience impact.

Our next show with Celeste, again at Mirador, was a smaller “gay” romp, “The Ritz,” in which Celeste played a truly offbeat role, especially for her—an over-the-hill singer who couldn’t sing to save her life—and looked like Elizabeth Ramsey, to boot!

It was deemed to be an “impossible” assignment for a lovely and spot-on musically gifted talent like her—but Celeste loved the humongous challenge, and learned from scratch how to look and perform “badly,” on all counts!

It was while doing that offbeat show with Celeste that we started to really “get” where she was coming from as a performer.

Yes, she could look and sound great at the drop of a scented hankie—but, she loved challenging herself and stretching her limits, even if she had to occasionally “contradict” her performing ethos and essence!

We “understood” Celeste even more when we directed original Filipino musical productions for her, starting with “Katy!” with Mitch Valdes in the title role, and Celeste again going offbeat as her bitter archrival, Olivia.

The acclaimed production had many SRO performances and became the toast of theater town.

It also introduced us to Celeste as producer, and we liked working with her in the new relationship, as well, because she turned out to be a creative producer.

In other words, she didn’t just take care of casting and business matters, but also shared her insights into the dramatic and musical material, how it would connect with viewers, etc.

Years later, we again worked together on another new musical, “Sino Ka Ba, Jose Rizal?,” with music and lyrics by her husband, Nonoy Gallardo, and (surprise, surprise) Ogie Alcasid in the title role.

At first, we nixed Celeste’s idea of a comedian like Ogie personifying our national hero, because we were afraid it would be a major distraction for viewers.

But Celeste convinced us to at least give Ogie a one-on-one audition, which lasted for hours, during which we took him through the musical play’s many challenging scenes—all of which he resoundingly and convincingly hurdled!

And, when “Sino Ka Ba” was staged, it turned out to be a great success for Ogie—who, thanks to Celeste’s faith in his innate versatility, was able to prove that he deserved to portray the great Dr. Jose Rizal—no less!

On Aug. 5, Celeste will be back to performing mode at Solaire, but the many different insights we’ve gained into her musical gift through the years should find fresh fruition and affirmation—in one heartfelt humdinger of a memorable show!